Karen awoke focusing on the lamp on the end table.
Her foggy mind recalling the events of the previous evening, and the
nice policeman that had called a tow truck. She was in a motel in a
town off the main highway. She glanced over at the adjacent bed, the
twins were still sound asleep. The musty smell of room was invasive
and had an uncomfortably damp chill to it. She went to the thermostat
and turned it up. The baseboards instantly began to creak and crack,
indicating that they were at least functional.

She approached the mirror, her long curly red hair
looked like a cat fight had occurred in it while she slept. And her
mousy features appeared to have been out all night scavenging. Her
emerald green eyes were slightly bloodshot, and the lipstick had long
since worn off of her full lips. She walked to the window and pulled
the curtains open. Frost fogged the view, and had formed ice around
the edges of the window. She placed her petite alabaster hand on the
center of the window. Which quickly melted a clear hand print into
the frost. Apparently the cold snap was continuing. The morning had a
grayish cold tinge to it, and a skiff of snow covered everything.

“How gross,” she thought, peering out
through the small clear spot.

A murder of crows took to the air, from the black
barren trees amongst the headstones of the graveyard across the road.
She glanced towards the desk that doubled as a TV stand. A small
coffeepot was a welcome sight. She quickly readied the machine, and
turned it on. As she turned around, a pair of eyes staring at her
through her melted hand print on window startled her. She opened the
door as a blast of cold sweet winter air rushed in. The chambermaid
cart partially blocked the door.

“Fresh towels this morning Deary,” the
elderly woman said, with a friendly smile.

“No they’re fine, but is there a
restaurant near by?” Karen asked.

“Oh yes darling, I’m sure they will wake
up hungry,” the old woman smiled, her features slightly etched
with concern.

Karen momentarily wondered how she knew about the
children. But quickly dismissed it, realizing the old man at the desk
was probably the woman’s husband.

“Ma’s kitchen just around the corner has
the best food in town, but they won’t be open for half an
hour,” she said.

“Thank you,” Karen said, “we’ll
call if we need anything.”

“Okay then dear,” the old woman said, as
Karen closed the door and jumped back under the covers, shivering.

Karen vaguely remembered passing the garage with the
tow truck driver the night before. But squeezed into the tow truck
cab with the twins, combined with the darkness made it almost
impossible to keep her bearings. That was another headache she was
not looking forward to. She had heard horror stories from friends,
regarding being stranded in small towns with vehicle problems.

She pulled the covers over her head buried her face
in the pillow, and screamed trying to vent her frustration.

“Why did this have to happen, the last thing we
need is a hefty repair bill?” she thought to herself.

Hopefully because she was a single mother, the
mechanic would take pity on her. Things had gone from bad to worse,
and she was so looking forward to just relaxing with the twins at her
parents. Now she was probably going to have to phone them to wire
money. A thought that bothered her, because she knew they couldn’t
afford it.

Tyler and Tanya awoke rubbing the sleep out of their
little eyes, and as Karen had anticipated they were hungry.

As they entered the restaurant, the entire place
turned silent as every patron turned and stared at Karen and the
children. Karen could have sworn, they had accidentally wandered into
the local senior’s bingo parlor. Every person in the restaurant
was in their seventies, and continued to stare intently at them. The
conversations slowly resumed, as they seated them selves at a booth
in the corner. After breakfast Karen asked for directions to the
garage and with the disinterested children in tow, she soon found her
self at the garage. Her car sat outside, and was covered with the
previous night’s snow.

They trudged up to the front door, only to find that
the garage wasn’t open till 10:00AM. That left an hour for them
to kill, so she dragged the toddler’s back to the room. The
children sat watching cartoons, as she phoned her parents. Her
brother had made it at least, as he answered the phone.

“Hey Sis, where are you?”

“Oh Jason you would not believe it,”
Karen said. “We are in some little old fogy town off of the
main highway, and my car is stranded at the garage.

“What’s the name of the town?”

“You know I don’t even know, but it looks
like they just dropped my car outside the garage, and it’s just
been sitting outside all night.”

“Well I could come and get you, if you want,”
Jason’s voice had a concerned tone.

“Let me find out what the name of this hick
town is, and what’s happening with my car. I’ll call you
back, but tell mom and dad we’re okay,” Karen said, not
wanting them to worry.

“I have your number on the call display anyway
Sis, so call us back okay, love you.”

“Okay love you too, bye,” She said, as
she hung up.

Karen called the desk, to find out the name of the
town. In her rush to get to the garage and with the twins fussing,
she hadn’t even paid attention to any of the signs around town.
She got a busy signal and hung up, she tried again every ten minutes
and still got the same result.

“Oh these laid back country towns are all the
same,” she thought to herself.

She had a shower and decided the garage should be
open, so her and the twins headed for another irritating trip to the
garage. It was so much easier to put them in their car seats, than to
drag the toddlers even a few blocks on foot. Snow had begun to fall
to the delight of the toddlers. Karen dismissed any hope of a quick
trip back to the garage.

“Looks like the alternator is fried,” the
fat old mechanic said, as he peered out from under her hood.

“How soon can you have it fixed?”

“Well it will be nothing to fix, getting a new
one in will be the problem,” he said.

He spat a big gob of chewing tobacco at the mangy
cat, which crossed the shop floor near him. Tyler immediately took
after the cat. Karen had to salvage him, as the junkyard cat turned
and hissed at them.

“Yeah he don’t take to strangers,”
the mechanic cackled sarcastically, exposing his brown teeth.

“Get outta here,” he hollered, tossing a
wrench at the old feline.

“It will have to wait till Monday,” he
said, “I can order one for Monday.”

Karen was not happy at all, but she sensed that
arguing with the man was not going to help. They returned to the
room, and by this point the twins were almost ready for a nap. As she
passed the office she noticed a sign, stating back in half an hour.

Karen looked at her key tag it said Threshold Motel,
which didn’t sound like the name of a town. She went to the
drawer in the room and located some brochures and discovered a
map.... the town was indeed called Threshold.

The twins played and giggled quietly, under the
covers on the other bed. Karen pulled the comforter over herself, she
felt dead tired. Shortly after the children, she too drifted off to
sleep.

She was awakened by the telephone ringing, the room
was stifling hot as she answered. A dizzy grogginess consumed her
head.

“Hey Sis, I thought you were going to call us
back.”

“Sorry we just fell asleep.”

“Well what’s happening?”

“The name of the town is Threshold. And they
have to order an alternator for my car, but they can’t get it
till Monday.”

“I’ll come and get you, let me just grab
a map.”

“Thanks Jason,” Karen said, she could
hear her mom approaching the phone.

“Hi Honey, why didn’t you call back?”

“Sorry Mom we fell asleep”

“My god we were worried sick, its been all day
and we couldn’t get through to you.”

“What?” Karen said, as she got up and
went to the window, it was dark outside.

“Holy cow Mom, I guess we were really tired.”

A chill shot through Karen’s body as she
noticed the comforter on the twin’s bed.

It was ruffled but seemed awful flat, too flat to be
covering the twins. She approached the bed, as helpless horrifying
scenarios bombarded her mind. She whipped the comforter back. A sigh
of relief burst from her chest, as the twins looked up tired and
confused.

“Is everything okay Honey?” her mom
asked.

“Yeah it’s fine Mom I just gave myself a
little scare.”

“Okay here’s Jason.”

“Hey Karen I can’t find that name
anywhere on the map, are you sure that’s the name?”

“I thought that was the name, it’s off
exit thirteen.”

“Well it’s not on this map, but maybe
this is an old map.”

I’ll check for sure Jason, and call you back
okay.”

“Okay we’ll be waiting bye.”

“Bye.”

“Are you two hungry?” Karen asked

The toddlers nodded as they cuddled together. Karen
located cartoons on the TV for them to watch.

“She was the luckiest Mom in the world, to have
such beautiful affectionate children,” she thought to herself,
as she ran her brush through her hair.

“Mommies going to get us something to eat, so
you two just watch TV and don’t let anyone in okay.” The
twins were enthralled in their cartoons, and paid little attention to
her. But she could lock the deadbolt with her key anyway, and they
were too short to reach it.

The order seemed to take forever, but Karen returned
shortly.

She sat the bag of food on the walkway and inserted
the key. She turned the key but the lock was stiff or frozen. She
continued to struggle with the lock, as her concern grew that the
twins were stuck inside. Suddenly the door swung open, and an elderly
man in his boxers stood in front of her.

“What?” she gasped, as she looked past
him for the twins. A woman sat on the bed, Karen couldn’t make
out her features, because of the long hair concealing the woman’s
face.

“Can I help you young lady?”

“Where are my chi… she paused, as she
looked at the door number.

“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry,” she
said, “I came to the wrong door,” she could feel her
cheeks turning crimson red.

“Not to worry,” the gentleman said,
continuing to watch as she went to her door, smiling at her briefly
before he closed his door.

“I can’t believe I did that,” she
thought to herself, as her door unlocked. The twins where not on the
bed, and water was running in the bathroom. Karen rushed in expecting
to find the twins playing at the sink, and was perplexed that the
bathroom was empty and the faucet was running.

“Alright you two, where are you hiding?”
she smiled to herself. She left the bathroom approached the bed, and
yanked back the comforter, exposing two pillows.

“For such young children, they were quite the
pranksters,” she thought, as she looked under the bed.

Panic and worry began to take over the lighthearted
humor, as she checked under the other bed and the closet.

Karen could feel the blood pressure pounding in her
face as pure panic bolted through her entire body like a shotgun
blast. An aching, overpowering sensation flooded her chest. Her worst
fear had been realized, the twins were not in the room.

Karen rushed out of the room, frantically scanning
for footprints in the snow.

A vehicle leaving the parking lot caught her
attention. Tyler was standing in the back window, tears ran down his
little face as his outstretched arms beckoned her.

Karen ran down the snow-covered street, it was
impossible to get firm traction. Her head collided with the ice and
snow covered blacktop. Blood dripped from the cut on her eyebrow and
trickled down her face. As she lifted her head to see the vehicle
disappear, into the tormented snowy night.

Karen crawled to her feet, she felt dizzy and
queasiness knotted up in her stomach. She ran to the office and burst
inside. Surprise and concern washed over the elderly desk clerks
face, as Karen screamed frantically to call the police.

“Here sit down my dear,” he said, as he
came from behind the counter with a towel in his hand. She jumped
back like a frightened animal, as he approached.

“I’m not your Dear, why does everyone
have to call me Dear?” she screamed, her eyes darting about the
room for a telephone.

“Okay just settle down, I’ll call them
right now” he said reassuringly, as he handed her the towel.

Karen wiped her face as he headed for the office, she
could see him on the phone as he looked back at her suspiciously.

Karen noticed the huge red stain on the white towel,
and hadn’t realized how heavily she had been bleeding. She
approached a large tinted mirror in the lobby and cleaned the blood
from her face, as a thought entered her mind.

The old man didn’t seem very concerned about
the children. And who had better access to the locked room than the
motel owner. He came out of the office and approached her, as she
bombarded him with questions about him seeing anything, or who owned
the vehicle she saw leaving. He stared at her with a dubious look.
Karen just wanted to beat the information out of him.

A patrol car slide to a stop in front of the motel,
its lights invading the office and the darkness outside. Karen ran
out to meet the officer, before he even finished leaving his patrol
car.

“We have to go after the car,” she
screamed, as she pulled at the passenger door handle only to find it
locked.

“Whoa, just slow down a moment Miss.”

“There isn’t time.”

“We’ll take this one step at a time,”
the officer said, attempting to take control of the situation.

“They’re getting away.”

“They won’t get far there’s only
one way in and out of this town, just settle down.”

“Please,” Karen pleaded, as tears
streaked through the thin vale of blood that remained on her face.

“Okay I’ll unlock the door for you but I
want you to sit quiet okay, I’m just going to ask him a couple
of questions.”

“Okay... but hurry please,” she said, as
he closed the car door and entered the motel.

The new car smell of the patrol car and the warmth of
the heater, seemed to temporarily calm Karen’s nerves.

The moments visibly ticked by, as the officer talked
with the man in the office. They both turned looking at her through
the window, the man and the desk smiled noticeably.

“There was nothing funny about this,”
Karen thought to herself, as feelings that he was somehow involved
crossed her mind again.

“They went that way,” Karen impatiently
implored, as the officer entered the car.

“We have to get you to the hospital.” the
officer said calmly.

“The hospital.... forget this stupid little
cut, are you crazy they have my babies?”

“One step at a time,” the officer said.

I don’t know what they taught you at the
academy? Karen said, but my babies have been kidnapped,” she
glared at him unable to comprehend his incompetence.

“Let’s just calm down a bit,” he
said, as he smiled at her. “We’re getting you to the
hospital.”

Karen could not believe what he was saying, but her
attention was averted.

There was the car again, it was parked on a side
street and this time she could clearly see Tanya looking out the rear
side window as they passed in the patrol car.

There they are,” she screamed, “stop the
car, stop the car.”

“Not until we get you to the hospital.”

Karen awoke in a hospital bed, she frantically looked
around the room and tried to move. But she was strapped to the
gurney. Through the window she could see the officer talking with her
father, mother, and her brother Jason.

“Oh thank god they are here to help,” she
thought, as a warm relaxing feeling invade her body.

Meanwhile outside her window her family explained how
Karen’s children and husband had been killed in a car accident,
in which she was driving.

“She never was the same following the coma she
woke up from, and is still extremely delusional,” Jason said.

“She believes with all her heart, that her
children are still with her, and that her husband had abandoned
them.” her mother added.

“ Well she was the talk of the town with her
imaginary children,” the officer said, “but I never
expected her to jump from the patrol car.”

“We have her sedated,” the doctor said,
she’ll be fine, you can take her home in the morning.”

“Thank you Doctor,” Jason said

Karen’s eyelids slowly closed as the medication
over took her. She knew her family would help find the children, so
she could sleep now.

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